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This hour, we continue cnns special live coverage of a historic vote on capitol hill. A moment, the House Of Representatives will hold a key vote on a motion to oust Kevin Mccarthy as speaker. A motion being brought by one of his fellow republicans. At the beginning of the day, we knew there were five republicans who would vote to oust him. Now, we know there are six. And were learning that mccarthys republican allies are attempting to make a lastminute plea to the 212 House Democrats there, to try to join them, to save him. But House Democrats appear to be united in not wanting to rescue mccarthy. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries just sent what is known as a Dear Colleague letter to his fellow democrats. Saying its the responsibility of the gop to end their own House Republican civil war. Lets go right to capitol hill now where we find cnns manu raju and cnns melanie zanona. Manu, to you first, what are you hearing from republicans as this vote gets closer and closer . Reporter well, theyre coming to grips with the reality that Kevin Mccarthy simply does not have the votes to survive the afternoon measures. The first vote will happen in just a matter of minutes. Theyre trying to block matt gaetz effort from going forward. The Matt Gaetz Motion Would Kick Mccarthy out from the speaker chair. Thats going to fail. That means mccarthy would lose that first vote, by bipartisan shorter to actually allow it to move ahead. Then that vote expected on that historic vote, to actually Eject Mccarthy from the speakership. That is expected later this afternoon, at the same time, mccarthy does not have the votes for that as well. Then, its major uncertainty about whats next. Because the house is essentially paralyzed in until it can elect a new speaker. As mccarthy puts himself as candidate for speaker, he almost certainly would not have the 218 votes needed to be speaker. And another candidate could come up as well and they wouldnt have the 218 votes to be elected. What will happen then . That is the question on everyones minds for the speaker . How long is he willing to go to fight this out . Congressman matt gaetz has made it Crystal Clear he plans to force this vote over and over and over again in mccarthy is forced out in what is historically a first. Never before in history has the speaker be kicked out of the speakership through a vote on the house floor. That what were going to see as we enter into a deep period of chaos in the house as they grapple with that. Speak of the house Joseph Cannon faced a motion to vacate in 1910, but he overwhelmingly survived. It does not appear that Speaker Mccarthy is a Speaker Cannon. Melanie, minority leader Hakeem Jeffries from new york, he said democrats are not going to rescue mccarthy. Are democrats totally united in that, all 212 are going to vote the same way . Reporter yeah, jake, its pretty clear in talking to democrats there will be no democratic cavalry coming to rescue Kevin Mccarthy. They huddled for two hours Behind Closed Doors and did soulsearching and talked about whether Speaker Mccarthy is worth saving. They determined that he is not. He launched an Impeachment Inquiry into President Biden and he walked away from a bipartisan Debt Ceiling Deal earlier in the summer. And he helped resurrect president trump. And jeffries did put out a statement saying it is now the responsibility for gop members to end the House Republican civil war. Given their willingness to break from extremism, House Democratic leadership will vote yes in vacating the chair. Were told by our colleague that some allies were making a lastditch attempt to try to get democrats to change their minds. Making calls, arguing to democrats that they cant punish mccarthy now that hes working with democrats. So far that message is not working. We are expecting at this point for democrats to vote in unison. Society math does not appear to be on mccarthys side. Jake. Melanie and manu, thank you so much. Lets bring our panel back into the conversation. First of all, one of the things that we need to ask ourselves is, if this happens, right, if mccarthy is removed from the speakership, immediately is a question about who is next in the line of secession, right . It goes president , Vice President , then speak of the house. Haw. And david you have insights on this because per the house rule and procedure, chapter 34 the speaker is required to submit a controversial list. In other words, when mccarthy became Speaker Of The House, he gave the clerk a list of people, if im never not Speaker Of The House, these are the people to take my place. Yes, i secret list. In my understanding in talking to some aides, this was a rule in the house that became implemented in the aftermath of September 11th of the Terrorist Attacks as part of a continuity government kind of thing. What is unclear, jake. Its a secret list that is handed over, i think it has ten names on it, in order, as you just noted that would take on the role of speaker pro tem. And member of House Of Representatives . And members of House Of Representatives. Marjorie Taylor Greene i dont know if greene is on Kevin Mccarthy list or not. If you know youre on the list or if you know youre on the list or is it secret to you as well and it just becomes revealed, if indeed the speakers chair is vacated here. And then the clerk opens up that list and gets. I have a question you can but i dont know ill be able to answer it. But is this a case where the house is taking action to remove the speaker . Thats my question. Or is it only when if the speaker is, you know, killed in a Terrorist Attack or something . I think its whether the speaker cannot fulfill the role. Not just when vacated. Its my reading of it, but i am not a parliamentarian. But what i will say is, there has been debate, and this i dont think we have answers to, among house rules experts that ive been speaking with and trying to communicate all morning on this, as to how much power that speaker pro tem would have. Would they be able to fulfill all of the responsibilities of speaker . Or as we expect, their only role here is to oversee the speakers election in the speaker is elected. Back in january, going through 15 rounds of this, the key difference, when that election for speaker was taking place, they werent members of the congress yet. Right. They had not been sworn in. They were memberselect. So theres literally nothing they could do from a Governing Perspective in a speaker was elected and swore all members in to become members of congress. Thats not the case here. Nancy pelosi was still Speaker Of The House at that moment. There was no house. No, there was no house. Exactly, there was no house. Now that the Writers Strike is over in hollywood this is a great idea for like an idiot version of designated survivor. Dana bash, in another way, looking at this conundrum, this pickle that Speaker Mccarthy finds himself, you can look at this and say, you know, he is the person who empowered this flank, the gaetz now six, the gaetz six, he gave them power after power. Including the one Person Motion to vacate power. Yes. He gave that because of his desire for power. He gave up the ghost. People might be wondering why in a body like the house which is partisan and has become more partisan over the years, why this kind of motion has not happened before. And in recent times, you just gave the answer, because the congress hasnt had this kind of power. Nancy i mean, you can speak to this, because you actually worked in house leadership, but nancy pelosi didnt allow this to happen. She didnt allow for any one member to make a motion to vacate the chair. The reason Kevin Mccarthy did this is because he was giving out concessions to republicans whose votes he needed, vote after vote after vote, and he didnt get. And he ultimately got those votes, number 15, back in january, by making a concession like this and this i remember sitting right here, talking about this. Right. And questioning whether or not this was going to come back to bite him. Of course it was, if you introduce a gun in act one, its going to go off in act three. The other thing, past speakers, they wielded power in different ways. Right. Some of them ruled by fear. Boehner would punish people, you stemmed out of line, youd get out of your committee. Nancy pelosi, and paul ryan was very respected. They begged him to be speaker. He didnt want to be speaker. He wanted to be chairman of the Budget Committee. Where it Kevin Mccarthy, is he feared . Is he i dont know the short answer. Thats not good. No its not. Ultimately, thats why were having this day and the speaker is only as powerful as the majority allowed them to be. Nancy pelosi had the same size as Kevin Mccarthy. A very different speakership. And mark meadows just threatened in a letter to make a motion to vacate the chair. It became such a big deal, the house blew up. And thats the anecdote in mark meadows book that john boehner got on his knees. Working on the implementation of house rules, we havent even talked about it. Youre talking a different language that most people who work on these things even know about. Well, we should note that fear of the House Freedom caucus by the republican speaker has been going on for at least a decade or so. Its why Speaker Boehner left before the end remember, he didnt leave at the end of the term. He left before the term was over. One random day. One random day, yes. Also, i remember Speaker Boehner, you were probably at this breakfast at least two of the three at this breakfast, when he was talking about how he was going to introduce Immigration Reform because he was making fun of republicans who didnt want Immigration Reform. And ultimately, he buckled, bus he was afraid they were going to remove him from the speakership. House republican retreat 2014 in williamsburg. We present our immigration principles, Speaker Boehner, and rogers and a guy names Kevin Mccarthy. That meeting lasted an hour. We never talked about that issue again. Dana would call me and say what are you doing on this . And it usually went to voice mail because i didnt have a good answer for her and never picked. You. Now, he tells me. You never listen to them. Well s, where does the Kevin Mccarthy power lie . Why are we here . Everything that you just described was predonald trump. These five or six now, if donald trump called them did this might end right now. If you go back to january, you remember the time when marjorie Taylor Greene got a call i think it said d. T. Oh, my goodness, trump just called her and it was settled. Here comes House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy. Lets listen. I think this is a big honor to do this. I think we were successful. I just wouldnt understand if theres a handful of republicans who join democrats who get to determine who the Speaker Of The House is. But it is what it is. Mr. Speaker, what has gone on here . What are they talking jab. These are the same ones who opposed me before. So, theyre turning the floor over to the democrats. Somemr. Speaker the first speaker to face this since 1910, the back that youre facing this does that Say Something about the speakership or the majority . No one not about that before in the boehner part, and boehner didnt work through it with me, i continued to work through it. If this goes through a vote, will you continue to stand for speaker vote after vote . Well see what happens. Mr. Speaker, are you ready to grind out mr. Speaker all right. I think weve heard all that were going to hear from him at this briefing, although no doubt, Speaker Mccarthy and allies for him will be speaking when they get to the well of the House Of Representatives. But let us continue our conversation, you were talking, im sorry. No i think this is a donald trump issue because you have people donald trump dispensed all rules even if they were still written on paper. So, now you have Kevin Mccarthy Making Promises, and it did come back to bite him. But again, if donald trump wanted to intervene right now and call some house members, i think this might end in a different way. And also, if Kevin Mccarthy had not gone down to maralago after january 6 and bowed to donald trump again, he may not be in this situation with democrats. Donald trump is the backdrop of a lot of this, jeffries mentioned maga, he doesnt say trumps name, he said this is the time to distance yourself from this democracy and youre not as a party. Its two sides of say coin, right . We treat them as capitol hill and whats happening here, as a separate story, but its the same story. Right . We saw signs of it way back in 2008 when john mccain had to, you know, forcefully rebuke members of his party who stood up and had racist things to say about barack obama but then he gave into it when he picked sarah palin who was really the first candidate really in this mold. You saw tell emerge in house race after house race. These house races are easier to win. Theyre smaller areas, theyre more gerrymandered. And Tommy Tuberville is a sign of this who is willing to basically hold up the entire United States military and make a point. Its all related and we shouldnt pull it apart. Its a generational transformation. Were going to take a break. Well come back and talk about the big picture. If you missed what Kevin Mccarthy just said, a big question from a reporter, will you continue to stand for speaker vote after vote, of course, the expectation being the motion to table will fail, the motion to vacate will succeed. And then Speaker Mccarthy will continue to stand for speaker and lose vote after vote. And Kevin Mccarthy saying well see what happens. And in fact, we will see what happens, all of these votes coming minutes from now. And perhaps my predictions will be wrong. Who knows. Our Special Coverage continues after this short break. Welcome back to our Special Coverage. Any minute, the u. S. House of representatives will hold a key vote on a motion to oust its leader. Speaker Kevin Mccarthy. We now know there are at least six republicans who will vote against him. Mccarthy, of course, is a fellow republican. Lets go to lauren fox on the hill. Lauren, what are mccarthys allies saying about these pending votes were expecting any moment . The first one will be a motion to table, that will possibly be followed by a motion to vacate. Reporter yeah. You can expect, jake, that his allies are deeply frustrated, irritated an upset at matt gaetz who they feel like is just a minority voice in their conference. Mccarthy, they say has broad and widespread support but as Stephanie Vice told me, one key ally of the speaker, right now matt gaetz is playing a n narcissistic game of charades. You also have this. If mccarthy loses the votes today, do you think hes going to fight, do you think hes going to run for speaker again . Kevin mccarthy has never given up on anything in his life. He never lets the clock run out on him and he knows his resilience is his superpower. And hes got a lot of members right now tells him to stay in the fight. There that theres no other person that can get to 215 votes. Kevin mccarthy is going to be the Speaker Of The House at the end of the month. Listen, there may be a few hours here and there when hes not speaker, but Kevin Mccarthy is the only one supported by 90 of the caucus. Reporter are you going to stick with Kevin Mccarthy even if this goes on for a month . Kevin mccarthy is the only person who can possibly run this absolutely insane House Of Representatives right now. Reporter and just moments ago, jake, Kevin Mccarthy was pressed repeatedly, including by our colleague manu raju as to whether or not he would continue to run for speaker if he was ousted today. Would he participate in the next speakers race. He said, well see. He didnt directly answer the question. Obviously, allies of mccarthy feel like if they give in to gaetz and if they allow another candidate to run for speak and get the consensus of the conference, that theyre only empowering the hardliners. The lesson then for matt gaetz is if you dont like what the speaker does, you can do get rid of them. That is not a message that people like johnson and vice want to send to capitol hill. Jake. Lonauren fox, thank you so much. Lets bring the panel back in. Dana bash, how much do you think that mccarthy, in some ways are responsible for the empowered we just heard lauren fox talking about, you know, you cant empower the farright here, whatever you want to call them, the maga caucus, the gaetz six, whatever, by letting them do this. Yeah. Theyve already been empowered since the very beginning because of concessions that mccarthy gave them. He empowered them in order to get the speakers gavel. Right. And he knew that. And my sense is he thought from the moment that happened that this time in the chair might not be that long. That it might be shortlived. That this was kind of inevitable. What maybe he didnt expect was everybody accept, his closest allies, but those who have been ticking the most loudly, both the conservatives and definitely on the democratic side, going at him as somebody they cant trust. I know that sounds make quaint in todays politics but its not. And again, even those who very much vehemently disagree, leaders historically, even until recent times can sit eye to eye and say im going to do this for my politics. And the other would say, i have to do this for my politics. And the frustration with Kevin Mccarthy is what you said, kasie, earlier, is that hes so used to being liked and so wants to be liked, thats how he got where he is, that maybe hes gone too far from the perspective of those who think that that desire has led to him lying. Because he made not intentionally maybe, but Making Promises that he cant keep, and that he doesnt keep. They feel betrayed by him. Just let me get specific here. When you talk to the republicans, he felt that he had to make a deal, so that the United States didnt default on its debt. Uhhuh. Earlier in the year. Earlier in the year. And he did it. And that deal led to certain Spending Levels. And then what happened was, he didnt keep some of those promises on the Spending Levels because his conservative flank said what are you doing . Why you making these deals with democrats . So he broke promises. He broke promises on all sides. With the white house and the senate. Right. Look, some of it may be some of these members are ungovernable. But there are some leaders who have shown certainly on the democratic side, nancy pelosi, you made this point, doug, the same majority, she was able to figure it out. Lets go back to Manu Raju On Capitol Hill who has with him a republican congressman from north carolina, greg murphy. Manu. Reporter congressman murphy, thank you for joining us, obviously, this vote is going to happen on the house floor. You are a supporter of Kevin Mccarthys what is the message for Congressman Matt Gaetz who is pushing this message right now and may actually succeed. Well, i just question the motivation. Why are you doing this . Is it for personal engrandizement . Is it to get personal time for governorship in two years . Nothing has changed when you handicap the speaker In The Beginning of the year, i think hes done a very good job given the circumstances. Is it perfect . Nobody is perfect. But this is personal, gaetz has his own personal agenda against people and just promoting himself. I think its a terrible demonstration for members of congress, first of all, this is not who we represent. Reporter its not just him, five or six what seven, eight, nine, ten . You know, this goes on both sides, its Attack Leadership regardless of who they are. Republicans, our greatest asset is our individualism but also a challenge. And learning to play with a team and do these things sometimes is a challenge. Reporter what is your advice to Speaker Mccarthy, if he loses this vote right now, should he continue as candidate for speaker as long as it takes or time for new leadership . I think he absolutely should continue. In my eyes hes done nothing wrong. There are some who want perfect, but you can never get on both sides perfect. Reporter what if it keeps dragging on and on, youre okay with that . It took 15 votes before, if it takes 17, so be it. With republicans embracing chaos, when gaetz was asked this morning, whos next . He didnt have an answer. You can embrace chaos, but if you dont have an, answer, get out of the way. Reporter how worried are you . Im extremely worried. Republicans helped guide the economy, stop the absolute chaos going on at the border what is going on with Interest Rates crippling the country. Americans, vast majority, republican and democrats support the government to get this done. But these asinine gestures dont help at all. Reporter have you had any conversations to try to flip them . Ill speak to the other guys, i think we can talk intelligently. Reporter how worried are you with another shut down if this plays out, how likely is that . I dont think its going to play out 45 days. A shutdown doesnt achieve anything on either side. It just achieves chaos. If you sit back and look objectively what the world is looking at. Were not making a great case for democracy in putins or in premier xis eyes either. We have to learn how to rule. Reporter will Kevin Mccarthy will be speaker next week . I believe so. Its going to take lots of rounds. It is what it is. Im a surgeon. Im used to going the distance, and hes going to go the distance also. Reporter congressman murphy, thank you. Jake, back to you. Manu, thank you so much. Lets bring our panel back, kasie, you were making the point that none of this can be seen in a vacuum. Yes. That obviously, the dysfunction is part and parcel of a certain attitude that is in the gop that donald trump brought even if more to the fore . Yes, obviously, you can argue that the House Of Representatives obviously does hide as much as anybody did but the House Of Representatives is the leading indicator that showed us where were going. I dont necessarily think it brought us trump but i think its an evolution of the same type of thing. Trump, the call to personality, famous or other things, many things created donald trump for the way that he is. But the politics that underlie it, especially the fervor in that base, in the maga base, david, you spend so much time looking at these people and try to understand what motivates them, we know its not the whole Republican Party that feels this way or agrees with matt gaetz. But it is a segment thats very loud and very insistent and very defensive where they are. I would argue its as much cultural as political at this point but its a phenomenon, the way the government is set up, capable of paralyzing our government. One of the things thats interesting, that were watching right now, as the house begins to gavel in. But theyre not beginning to part right now well, lets listen in for a second. Heres matt gaetz. Mr. Speaker, i rise to the privileges of the house and offer the resolution. The clerk will report the resolution. House resolution 757, resolved that the office of speaker of House Of Representatives was hereby declared to be vacant. Resolution qualifies as a question of the privileges of the house. For what purpose does the gentleman from oklahoma seek recognition . Motion to table at the desk. Clerk will report the motion. Oklahoma, lay the resolution on the table. The question is in the motion to lay the resolution on the table all in favor saaye, those opposed no. In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have. We wouldiest the Yeas And Nays. The Yeas And Nays are ordered. Members will record their votes by electronic device. This is a 15minute vote. So, just to explain whats going on right now, matt gaetz, Congressman Matt Gaetz who is leading the effort to fire Speaker Mccarthy introduced what will is House Resolution 757. That is a motion to vacate, to fire mccarthy. Then congressman tom cole, a republican from oklahoma, he introduced a motion to table that. There is now a vote on whether or not to table this motion. A vote aye is a vote in favor of keeping Speaker Mccarthy as speaker, so aye means promccarthy. Nay means no, lets vote on getting rid of him. Manu raju, lets go to you and your view of whats going on right now. Reporter yeah, one of the things to look out here, jake, is the number of absences on the democratic side. Were told that a handful of numbers arent able to make this vote. That could change the threshold. Because what theyre counting on here is the majority of members voting and present. If there are fewer than 435 members in the changember which expect, that would lower the threshold. We will see if that could actually help Kevin Mccarthy if there are enough democratic absences to offset the republicans pushing to oust him here. That is one of the key questions at this moment. Right now, as you can see, there are ten republicans who are voting to essentially keep this resolution alive. Weve been saying if all 435 members are there and all democrats vote for this effort, he only needs five. Matt gaetz only needs five republicans to side with him. Already ten and counting. That is a very bad sign for Kevin Mccarthy. But again, the question will be how many members ultimately are there in voting. But also were seeing one democrat vote a democratic Member Voting yes. Well see if thats a mistake or intentional or not. Sometimes, the members vote and realize they meant to vote no or yes, and they change it. At the moment, ten republicans voting and counting, a warning sign for Kevin Mccarthy that he could very well lose this. But again, we will see how many absences are there, changes of thresholds there for the speaker not looking good in the first key vote, jake. Thats right, there are roughly 12 1 2 minutes left in the 15minute vote. Right now, its not looking good, because of course, as manu just pointed out, he can only afford to lose four House Republicans, assuming that all of the other House Republicans vote yea. And all of the other democrats vote nay. Which we assume is going to happen. Although there is one democrat voting yea to table the motion. Again for those Keeping Track at home, a yea is in favor of tabling the motion to get rid of mccarthy. And a nay is a vote to get rid of mccarthy. Yea means for mccarthy, nay means against mccarthy. As manu pointed out the no votes are significant as well. Well get to that you see the democrat, jake, moved over. Yeah, the democrat either made a mistake or somebody said what on earth are you doing . Yeah. He said, oh, i think this is nonsense. And he said, youre going to get primaried im making that all up. And the other thing to look at is pres. Thats present. Prior to the caucus meeting, youre nodding your head, the other thing i heard, they were considering Voting Present. Why . Because what Voting Present does is bring the overall threshold, manu was saying if everybody is there, its 218. It brings the overall threshold of what is needs down which could make it easier, in this case, to sort of cut through all of the procedure here. Make it easier for Kevin Mccarthy to survive, without actually having to vote to making him to survive. Youre nodding your head but my impression, after this mornings caucus is that democrats are not going to do that anymore. Yeah, that was the talk late last week, over the weekend. Maybe the State Of The Union or the interview he did, Face The Nation might have changed that. Coming out of caucus today. I dont think any democrat is going to vote yea or presenct. It makes me think back to december 2020, the polls around the midterms and people were being asked how do you feel about the direction of the country. And folks were saying they dont really like the direction its going in. I think theyre talking about votes like this. I think theyre talking about moments like this. We have 43 days to figure out how the government stays open and how we fund our budget. And were wasting time on this. So, we started out this vote, knowing that there were six republicans who were clearly going to vote to get rid of mccarthy. We now know of ten, one of the original six was congressman tim birchic of tennessee who has spoken to reporters. He told reporters that Speaker Mccarthy called him and condescended to him about a previous statement he made about how he was playing on his decision. On wait to the floor, birchic told reporters when i make a statement that i am praying about it and i get a call from the speaker that he belittles that, to me, that shows another reason we need a change in leadership. I was, obviously, not privy to the phone call but that is the reason that he believes that mccarthy was belittling his comment that he was going to pray on that, which is obviously not what you want to be conveying, even if by accident, to somebody who is voting against you. Right now, we have, roughly, 50 individuals who have yet to vote. And, again, all of the democrats who have voted, 171, as of this moment 172. Have voted against mccarthy. Against tabling the resolution, in favor of a motion to vacate. And in favor of voting to get rid of mccarthy. And ten republicans are with them. 203 republican, the majority of the majority are not with matt gaetz. But ten republicans is a lot. Sorry, should make clear, that number ten that youre looking at, the republicans who are voting against the motion to kill this effort. Yes. To oust mccarthy, that may not be where the number is, should we get to an actual vote on vacate. Do you know . Sure. So some republicans youve been noting the gaetz six, we would actually have to get to motion to see if that vacates . Clearly, the gaetz six are saying, hey, we should get that much. Vacate, for sure. Two incorpthings, jake, part this motion which were not seeing, in theory, this could have made it more difficult for democrats to get rid of the gaetz motion. This is technically not an up and down vote in helping mccarthy. This is a procedural move that members of congress feel they can spin when they get home. Senate, they did a lot of same things in a lot of places. This is the thing that democrats are united in, nope, youre not taking our best opportunity to help Kevin Mccarthy. Theyll see how it plays out, and two, as you repeated jake, we havent seen anything like this since 1910, when we certainly didnt have access to cspan when we could see this playing out on the house floor. And flashing back to the house, where mccarthy we saw this 15 times, blows broke out on the house floor. Our politics is broken. The vote in 1910 was not close. 119 to 155, in favor of keeping Speaker Cannon in charge. This is going to be much, much closer. This, of course is not the vote to get rid of mccarthy. Its just a vote on whether or not they should have a vote on getting rid of mccarthy. Its very close right now, 204 to 203. The burden, of course, is 218 votes. And theres just about six minutes left in the vote. Doug heye 218 if everyone is present, right . 218 if everyone is present. With only 20 not voting, it does look, im guessing, it will probably be 218, or close to that. We know for one that nancy pelosi is not present. Nancy pelosi is in san francisco, she was there to escort the remains of her friend Dianne Feinstein back home. Manu raju, back on capitol hill. Reporter yeah, hey, jake, we got some new information about the republicans who are defying Kevin Mccarthy or voting to advance this resolution to kick mccarthy out of this speakership. There are ten republicans right now, danger territory for the Speaker Of The House. And those ten republicans, according to our colleagues, Kristen Wilson and harry tauber, elice preston, rosy specifics, matt gaetz leading this, matt goode and tim burchic. And were waiting on Congresswoman Lauren Boebert who has been coy on where she is on this, jake, those are the ten defying the speaker, even though theyre in the minority of the minority, the fact that theyre voting with democrats shows that this is major danger territory for the Speaker Of The House to keep his job to potentially push him out which is expected this afternoon, declaring the office of the speaker vacant. Because of the support of these members, along with democrats to oust Kevin Mccarthy, thats what this will be the end result of these votes here, that are happening. So those ten members, those ten and counting, are voting to kick Kevin Mccarthy out here, jake. Well see where this vote ends up its not looking good for the speaker. 2 215 votes against mccarthy, 204 votes for mccarthy. If all voting, 218 will be the magic number but there are some absences here. It looks like Kevin Mccarthy is going to lose his first key vote here, jake. Right. Theres still 12 members of congress who have not voted. We know at least one of them is nancy pelosi who is back in san francisco. 11 have not voted. And right now, whether the magic number is 217 or 218, its hard to imagine that Kevin Mccarthy is not going to be on the losing end of this vote. This vote is not the vote to oust Speaker Mccarthy. This vote is just to proceed to the vote to oust Speaker Mccarthy. But ten republicans have joined with 206 democrats. Davidson, crane, buck, sparks, biggs, rosendale, gaetz, mace and burchic of tennessee. We heard the reasoning explained earlier today, he said he was praying on how to vote. And he got a call from mccarthy. And he thought that mccarthy was making fun of him. Was belittling and condescending him when he referred to praying. Thats it, 218 nay votes. They are going to unless people change their vote in the next 2 1 2 minutes, Speaker Mccarthy, theyre going to vote on importantwhether or not to v. This has not happened since 1910. Its the first time weve seen this graphic, jake. Its the first time in history weve seen this graphic, because this did not exist in 1910 when the vote took place with Speaker Cannon. There were not 435 members of congress. Also, we should note, this has been a historic speakership. And no matter how you slice it because it was 15 ballots to get the mccarthiy speakership. Its hard to imagine, theres the 11th nay, thats andy nogales, since he said he was going to vote nay. We do not know if all of these individuals in the Republican Party who voted to proceed to fire to Kevin Mccarthy are going to vote that way. And im sure that the armtwisting and promises of who knows what are going to be fast and furious, coming from the mccarthy forces. But it is also difficult to imagine changing your vote, once you have walked down that road of proceeding to want to get rid of your speaker, doug. I mean, anything could happen, you could make the argument, hey, i just think it should be up for a vote. But we already know that there are five. Yeah. Republicans who are on the record saying they want to fire mccarthy. We dont know that there are 11. But id rather not be Kevin Mccarthy right now. No. And one of the things thats interesting about the images that we see, if youre not a fulltime cspan nerd that we all are that you may not notice im really not a cspan nerd. Book notes especially. A lot of those members of matt gaetz five or six, theyre all on screen sitting next to each other. And members of congress congregate in units or clubs if youre with matt gaetz, youre sticking close. Its very middle School Cafeteria on that house floor. Absolutely. Theyre all mean girls. Do you remember back in january, the house had not fully convened. All of the rules about the cameras were different. We had full access. You could see each of these factions sitting and huddling. Youre not going to see it in the house. They have rules. It does look like matt gaetz is ready. Matt gaetz was in favor of keeping the cameras freefloating. Matt gaetz wanted more cameras . No. He wanted the cameras to keep going, that somehow fell by the wayside. But the motion to vacate did not. And here we see the result of that, the time remaining is zero. Nays are 218. The motion is not adopted. Pursuant to clause 282 of rule 9, the gentleman from florida, mr. Gaetz, and the gentleman from oklahoma, mr. Cole, will each control 30 minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from florida. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield such time as may consume to my colleague from virginia, mr. Goode. Virginia from virginia, mr. Goode, is recognized for such time as he may consume. Before the gentleman speaks, may i remind my colleagues that all parties need to be heard. Would you please clear the well. And clear the aisles. And any extraneous conversations need to be taken from the floor. Gentleman from virginia is recognized. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Like so many others, i deeply regret that we are here in what was a totally avoidable situation. I must take you back to january, however, which for many of us was about not repeating the failures of the past, and letting Republican Voters across the country down once again, when in the past, for many years, when republicans have had majorities in this chamber, we have passed our major spending bill, predominantly with democrat votes. Something the other side of the house has never, and would never back in january i expressed my concern that the previous two years during my first term here in the house, we had not used every tool at our disposal to fight against the harmful, radical, democrat agenda that is destroying the country, bankrupting the country and under which the American People are suffering. Most in here wouldnt know i helped persuade my five colleagues who comprise the remaining resistance in the wee Morning Hours of january 7th to switch our votes to present to let mr. Mccarthy become speaker. I went to him on this very floor to tell him he was finally going to become speaker on the next vote. In that moment it was clear to me that i or we could have asked for anything in exchange for switching our votes to present, but i and we asked for nothing. The very next week i requested and had a meeting with Speaker Mccarthy to tell him he had my full support and i wanted him to be successful because the country needed him to be successful. In the ensuing months i helped him narrowly pass the parents bill of rights and the grove bill, i think by one or two votes, helping persuade some of my most conservative colleagues to come along despite some of the concerns they had with those bills. We remained united as a conference through the limit say grow vote as we passed a Bill Cutting Spending to precovid levels, for nondefense discretionary spending, historic cuts as the speaker committed to do in january. It also included a host of other conservative fiscal reforms. Unfortunately, however, that unity and that commitment to significant year one cuts and spending reforms were discarded, were discarded in the failed responsibility act, as i call it, which passed overwhelmingly once again with a majority of democrat votes, validating the concern many of us had in january. Many of us had begged the speaker, pleaded with the speaker repeatedly to utilize the debt ceiling, to leverage spending cuts and reforms. Instead he negotiated an unlimited increase to the debt ceiling through january of 25. As much as we can come together and gleefully spend through january of 25, with no significant wins for the American People in that fra or failed responsibility act. But the speaker then said that we would use appropriations, we would use appropriations to bring the fight and finally reduce our spending. He said the levels of the fra were the ceiling and not the floor and committed recommitted multiple times to go back to the 1. 471 tril i dont know that was the limit say grow levels, radically, historically saving 100 billion in lowering the deficit this year under republican majority from 2. 2 trillion to 2. 1 trillion. Thats what we were asking the Republican House to do, to go to 2. 1 trillion. Meanwhile the speaker committed to bring a balanced budget vote to this floor, something that still has not happened despite the work thats been done in our Budget Committee to mark it up and have it ready to come to the floor. He also promised we would bring all 12 Appropriation Bills well before the september 30 fiscal deadline. We did not. We simply, as republicans, needed the speaker to cast the vision, request the support of the entire conference, all of whom voted for the limit save grow levels except for four that wanted to go even further, to lead us in joining him, sticking with him, supporting him and sending the most conservative Spending Bills with the most conservative cuts possible to the senate as the best starting position for negotiations with the senate. Many of us begged and pleaded with the speaker to do that over the past five months. When the speaker failed us to pass our Spending Bills, bringing only 1 of 12 to the floor before the august district work period, members began to negotiate amongst themselves without the speaker to find compromise. I was among those who reluctantly agreed last month to split the difference between failed responsibilities 1. 586 and the limit save grow 1. 741, i reluctantly agreed to do that, to go to 1. 526. We then essentially forced the speaker, with the pressure of the calendar, the shutdown threat of the calendar to bring those to the floor last week, all of which i voted for, despite some of them not cutting to levels we agreed to and other concerns i had with the bill. I reluctantly voted for the 30day conditional cr, continued resolution, because it cut an additional 10 billion in the month of october, going back to the 1. 471 levels, 30 and it had border security. I voted for that. However, when that vote failed, the speaker this past friday in the republican Conference Meeting made it abundantly clear that he was willing to do anything to avoid the temporary discomfort and the pressure of a pause in the 15 of the nonessential federal Government Operations which would guarantee that we would lose to the Senate Democrats and the white house f. Youre not willing to say no, then youre guaranteed to lose. That was confirmed with the passage of the unconditional 45day cr this past saturday. Once again with 209 democrat votes. The republican bill, 2091 democrats, 510 on the senate side. The speaker fought through 15 votes in january to become speaker but was only willing to fight through one failed cr before surrendering to the democrats on saturday. We need a speaker who will fight for something, anything besides just staying or becoming speaker. If there was ever a time to fight, with 33 trillion in national debt, a 2 trillion deficit this year, 40year high inflation, 20year high Interest Rates, a downgraded credit rating, and for the first time in modern history the polls showing, despite all the help of the media blaming republicans in the house, the polls showed blaming biden and the democrats for the imminent shutdown. If not fight now, when would we fight . Now is the time. We cannot simply be content to be the party that slows it down to 95 so we can sit in the front seat and wear the captains hat. Our current debt and spending trajectory is unsustainable. We need a speaker, ideally somebody who doesnt want to be speaker and hasnt pursued that at all costs for his entire adult life who will meet the moment and do Everything Possible to fight for the country. A red line was crossed for me, i regret, on saturday and i regret i must vote to vacate the chair. I yield back. Gentleman from florida reserves his time. Gentleman from oklahoma, mr. Cole. Thank you very much, mr. Speaker. I share one thing in common with my friend from virginia. This is a very sad day and certainly a day i never expected to have to live through. I think broadly speaking, as i look across this floor, you can divide members into three groups. Im happy to be in the first group, the overwhelming majority of my Party Supports the speaker we elected. Were proud of the leadership hes shown, proud of the manner in which hes been willing to work with everybody in our conference and in this chamber. Theres a second group, small group. Honestly theyre willing to plunge this body into chaos and this country into uncertainty for reasons that only they really understand. I certainly dont. And then there are Friends On The Other Side, i mean friends honestly with great sincerity. I have a lot of friends over there. I recognize my Friends On The Other Side have a very complex set of partisan, personal and political calculations to make. I certainly wouldnt presume to give them any advice about that. But i would say think long and hard before you plunge us into chaos, because thats where were headed if we vacate the speakership. I personally think theres three reasons why weve come to this point. Thats why at each critical minute the speaker did the right thing. First it was the speaker vote. He got 85 of the vote in our conference, 90 of the vote from republicans on this floor. Yet, we had a small group who decided they would dictate what they want. He didnt let that happen. He fought. He fought for himself, but he fought for 90 of us, too, that wanted him to be the speaker, and i appreciate that. Then, of course, we had the Debt Ceiling Deal. Nobody here thought he could pass a bill. Nobody in america thought he could pass a bill. He did what speakers are supposed to do, he passed the bill. Then he sat down and negotiated with a Democratic Senate and a democratic president and came back with a good deal, a deal that will limit spending. He did the right thing. Finally, last saturday on this floor, we were on the verge of a Government Shutdown, a Government Shutdown that the vast majority of members in this chamber did not want, a substantial majority on my side, an overwhelming majority on the democrats side. He put his political neck on the line knowing this day was coming to do the right